New Issues
E-Com
at MC11 is effort to hijack basic internet governance issues
(Chakravarthi
Raghavan, Geneva, 22 November 2017)
As
issues relating to the monopolistic/oligopolistic control over information
and data by the Silicon Valley technology giants and their platforms
are beginning to attract adverse public and political attention around
the world, these technology platforms (Google, Facebook, Twitter)
are attempting to hijack the issue of internet governance and democracy
by writing trade rules at the WTO under the rubric of "e-commerce".
A
new vice-chair, consultations to intensify on organisation of MC11
(Kanaga
Raja, Geneva, 30 October 2017)
With
less than seven weeks to go for the eleventh Ministerial Conference
of the WTO, the Chair of the General Council, Ambassador Xavier Carim
of South Africa, is holding intensified consultations and meetings
on the organization of MC11 and the kind of outcome document members
would like to see coming out of MC11.
MC11
becoming a North-South battle
(D.
Ravi Kanth, Geneva, 26 October 2017)
The
eleventh ministerial conference (MC11) of the World Trade Organization
in Buenos Aires in December is increasingly transforming itself into
a North-South battle on unresolved trade issues of the Doha Work Program
(DWP).
The
African Group position on e-commerce talks at WTO
(Kanaga
Raja, Geneva, 24 October 2017)
The
African Group has formally circulated on 20 October, as a restricted
official document, the full statement that it had delivered at an
informal meeting on the Work Programme on Electronic Commerce on 16
October.
Consensus
eludes trade ministers at Marrakesh
(D.
Ravi Kanth, Geneva, 16 October 2017)
The
just-concluded informal trade ministerial summit in Marrakesh on 10
October brought into sharp focus the linkages between fisheries subsidies
and improvements in the Doha trade remedy rules, and between the permanent
solution for public stockholding programs and domestic support.
South
call for credible results, including on PSH & SSM at MC11
(D.
Ravi Kanth, Geneva, 27 July 2017)
The
developing countries, individually and along with their coalitions
on Tuesday called for credible results based on the Doha work program,
including the permanent solution for public stockholding programs
for food security, at the World Trade Organization's eleventh ministerial
meeting in Buenos Aires in December, trade envoys told SUNS.
Doha
Round "legacy issues" can't be ignored in favour of new
issues
(Kanaga
Raja, Geneva, 21 July 2017)
The
legacy issues of the Doha Round cannot be ignored in the push for
starting negotiations on the new issues (such as investment facilitation
and binding rules on e-commerce), and the WTO members must decide
"by consensus" that the Round has been concluded, Ms Nirmala
Sitharaman, India's Minister for Commerce and Industry, said on 18
July.
India
optimistic over course-correction for Buenos Aires MC11
(D.
Ravi Kanth, Geneva, 21 July 2017)
The
Indian commerce minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday (19 July)
expressed "optimism" about finalizing two-thirds of the
work on the proposed deliverables for the World Trade Organization's
eleventh ministerial meeting by the time when an informal trade ministerial
summit takes place in Marrakech by mid-October.
North
to try to bury DDA, push e-commerce & MSME talks at MC11
(D.
Ravi Kanth, Geneva, 14 June 2017)
Major
developed countries and their "allies" in the developing
world have intensified efforts to quietly bury the Doha Development
Agenda negotiations while launching negotiations on electronic-commerce
and micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) at the World Trade
Organization's eleventh ministerial conference in Buenos Aires in
December, several ministers and trade envoys told SUNS.
South
nations demand credible, concrete outcomes on Doha at MC11
(D.
Ravi Kanth, Paris, 12 June 2017)
Trade
ministers from India, South Africa, Indonesia, and the ACP countries
on Thursday called for credible and concrete outcomes based on the
outstanding Doha issues at the World Trade Organization's eleventh
ministerial meeting in Buenos Aires in December, according to people
familiar with the development.
WTO
Members voice their views on key issues for MC11
(Kanaga
Raja, Geneva, 28 February 2017)
An
informal Heads of Delegation (HOD) meeting at the WTO on 23 February
heard a range of members voicing their views on what they see as their
priority issues for possible deliverables at the eleventh ministerial
conference (MC11) in Buenos Aires later this year.
WTO
secretariat & DG reproached for vitiating negotiating climate
(D.
Ravi Kanth, Geneva, 27 February 2017)
India
and several developing countries on Thursday (23 February) reproached
the World Trade Organization Secretariat led by Director-General Roberto
Azevedo for "vitiating" the negotiating climate by pushing
controversial new issues such as e-commerce and investment facilitation,
despite opposition from a large majority of members, trade envoys
told SUNS.
CSOs
urge WTO DG to advance development mandate, not 'new issues'
(Kanaga
Raja, Geneva, 13 February 2017)
Over
80 Indian civil society organisations (CSOs) called on WTO Director-General
Roberto Azevedo to advance the development mandate of the WTO negotiations
especially on key issues in agriculture, instead of his current push
for agreements on e-commerce and investment.
ICs
want "payment" anew for unresolved Doha agri issues
(D.
Ravi Kanth, Geneva, 24 January 2017)
Major
developed and some developing countries appear to be pushing for "payment"
for addressing the unresolved Doha issues in agriculture in the run-up
to the World Trade Organization's eleventh ministerial meeting in
Buenos Aires later this year, sources told SUNS on Saturday.
